Indian reporter who exposed assault faces new litigation

Indian journalist Naveen Soorinje continues to languish in
prison despite last week's decision by the Karnataka state cabinet to withdraw
charges against him. New developments this week are challenging his release.
And his continued imprisonment raises a larger question about the role of journalists
at the occurrence of a crime.

Since the cabinet dropped charges, Karnataka chief minister Jagadish
Shettar has still not signed the order for Soorinje's release. Now, on
Wednesday, the High Court served notice to 28-year-old Soorinje and the state
government that a Bangalore-based lawyer, N.P. Amrutesh, filed public-interest
litigation in the Karnataka High Court challenging the January 31 decision to
drop charges, media reports said.
Amrutesh alleged that Soorinje was a participant in the July attack on young
men and women at a party in Mangalore and that the government withdrew charges
"without applying its mind," according to local reports.

"The situation is increasingly uncertain and nothing is very
clear," Soorinje's lawyer, R. Nitin, told CPJ by phone. The court says it will
hear the case and decide whether to reverse the cabinet decision to withdraw
charges, he said. A date for a hearing was not provided, according to Nitin. Meanwhile,
Soorinje remains in legal limbo.

At the heart of Soorinje's case is the question: What is the
role of a journalist? Journalists, by the very nature of their work, bear
witness to wrongs. But the Indian government has blurred the boundary between
bearing witness and committing a crime. Furthermore, the government is
apparently turning a blind eye to what local journalists say is Soorinje's
track record of reporting with integrity and courage on previous
episodes of violence by Hindu right-wing groups.

Soorinje's footage was used to identify dozens of attackers.
Months later, Soorinje was arrested
by police under more than a dozen charges, including assault, rioting with a
deadly weapon, and using criminal force on women with the intention of outraging
their modesty, according to local and international news reports.

Soorinje says his calls to the police during the attack went
unanswered and he had no choice but to cover the episode. The only thing that
is mindless here is that a journalist who reported an assault is still locked
up for doing so.

Sumit Galhotra is the research associate for CPJ's Asia program. He served as CPJ's inaugural Steiger Fellow and has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories, and specializes in human rights and South Asia.